by Lori Hyrup
Aria, she heard Kharra’s voice speak in her mind, you need to get away from this place. This is a trap for you. There is an exit tunnel to the east of your location. Please go.
I made a promise to Zephyron. We’ve come to get you, she thought in response, hoping Kharra would pick up her message. Kharra’s mind remained silent after, so Aria remained uncertain if the message was received.
Time passed. Aria’s arms moved in a blur of motion, driven by pure instinct and decades of practiced muscle memory. Beads of sweat dripped along the right side of her face, but the crystalized side remained dry. She no longer gave thought to individual shard beasts. There were just too many. She did whatever she needed to in order to move forward. Her krusword began to sing, and she danced to its song. A glance out of the corner of her eye told her Zephyron was doing the same. Did he hear her song?
It seemed like an eternity since they had started fighting, yet they had barely made any progress toward their goal. A swath of shattered crystal fragments littered the floor for over five hundred paces, evidence of the destruction they had caused. Without it, one might not believe they had destroyed anything at all.
Aria’s arms grew heavy, sluggish. A prism wraith nearly clawed her face, but Zephyron’s blade flashed in front of her, deflecting the attack. He caught her eyes briefly and held his lips taut. Though she had wanted to avoid drawing on more power, she knew she would not be able to continue fighting at this pace much longer if she did not. Zephyron knew it as well. With caution she pulled deep on the sliver in her hand, drinking in the font of power. She doubted it would be enough to carry her all the way through to the pillar. There were just too many shard beasts between her current location and her destination.
Aria sensed a pulse from the shard up on the platform. It offered itself to her. She had never known of a kruusta capable of drawing power directly from a shard, but she had done it before—several times now, in fact. It would definitely give her the boost she needed, but she knew it would accelerate her condition. She cursed herself for her weakness and accepted its offering.
Sweet, blissful energy rushed through her every fiber like a raging torrent; she let the shard’s power fill her. Everything around her suddenly became much clearer. The sizzle and crackling of Zephyron’s blade filled her ears, as did the crashing and shattering of dismembered shard beasts. She could now make out Kharra’s form up on the platform. On her knees, the woman’s face twisted in pain. Aria gritted her teeth and refocused her power on getting through the hordes of shard beasts now assaulting them. Sounds of shattering crystal sang along with the song of her krusword. Faster and faster she spun her blade, the weariness upon her earlier now only a memory.
At some point during the fight, she had called forth a second sword from her left hand, but she’d been so engrossed in the fighting, she could not remember calling it. She had not even known such a thing was possible. Though she had never dual wielded swords before, her body moved as if she had been born to it. She found the circular motions of the style invigorating as the dance became more complex.
Kharra struggled to find her feet again. The pain from the last shock had left her legs shaky and weak, but she needed to witness the events below. Though they were barely a quarter of the way to the platform, her rescuers had no intention of leaving.
Fending off the emotional assault from the anguished shard beasts below, Kharra focused her empathy on Zephyron and Aria. Zephyron, though getting a good workout, had plenty of energy. He had likely tapped into the power from the vein surrounding the entire complex. Aria was another story. At first Kharra felt the kruusta’s energy and power sapping at a steady rate. Now, however, Kharra sensed Aria’s complete recovery. She knew that meant Aria had resorted to drawing on more of her crystal’s power.
Sparks and crystal fragments showered the southern portion of the cavern as the Guardian and the kruusta cleaved their way through swaths of shard beasts. If either had been normal humans, they would have fallen under the onslaught long ago. A good thing for them neither was such. They were close enough now for Kharra to see them clearly. Zephyron’s eyes blazed with the same blue energy that ignited his sword, a characteristic Kharra had long since learned to associate with Guardians. Nearly everything that touched his blade shattered before he finished his swing. Aria spun her body about, trying to maximize the damage of her two kruswords. Something about the way Aria fought seemed different.
Kharra studied the kruusta’s fighting more closely, and then it dawned on her. She had never seen Aria dual wield before. Her recollection of previous conversations told her that Aria only ever used a single weapon: the massive two-handed krusword. With a cold pit building in the center of her stomach, Kharra realized what she had been unable to identify before. The second sword was not a sword at all but rather an extension of Aria’s left arm.
Since the fighting had started, the two combatants had engaged minor or moderately dangerous shard beasts. Now they found themselves faced with much more difficult opponents. From the corner of her eye, Kharra caught Lukav’s grin widening. He could have easily crushed both attackers if he had sent in everything at once. Kharra knew that that was not his goal.
Aria and Zephyron clashed with their first krumetus. It came at them by itself. Unlike the other shard beasts they had faced so far, the creature did not shatter when struck by either the energy blade or the krusword. In fact the initial attack only seemed to enrage it. The beast rushed at Zephyron, but the Guardian dived to the side, rolling out of harm’s way. Aria leaped at the monster from the opposite side, slashing its shoulder. It attempted to backhand her, but she was quicker and blocked the attack with her second sword. A spray of prismatic dust sparkled under the cavern’s light.
Focused on Aria, the beast did not notice Zephyron’s leaping strike—a fatal mistake. Zephyron drove his energy blade down into the creature’s neck. Though the krumetus had an extremely tough exterior, it still had internal organs and vital points. As Zephyron twisted his weapon, blue-green liquid began spilling out. The Guardian yanked his blade free and leaped off and away. It staggered before finally dropping to its knees. Within moments the creature fell forward and stopped moving.
Their victory was short-lived. As soon as the beast fell to the ground, three more took its place. These three were much quicker and more cunning than the first one. They approached cautiously and spread out, forcing Aria and Zephyron to position themselves shoulder to shoulder with their backs facing each other. All three krumetuses rushed them at the same time. Aria blocked two separate attacks from two of the creatures, one with each sword. Her arms, though still empowered by the shard, strained beneath the force of their blows. She hoped Zephyron was faring better.
Aria spun around and away from the two beasts to give herself better positioning. They sidestepped slowly, forcing her to rotate away from the center platform. Zephyron danced out of the corner of her eye. He was also facing two krumetuses. When had a new one joined in? Swirling in a figure eight to slice through both adversaries, his blade burned afterimages into her eyes.
One of Aria’s attackers lunged. At the same time, Kharra’s sharp mental yell warned her of another coming from behind. Aria brought up her primary krusword to block the oncoming attack and attempted to twist to avoid the spine hurled at her from behind by a third krumetus. Her movement was not quick enough, and the spine pierced through her side, just above her right hip. She fell to one knee while still fending off the krumetus that had lunged at her. Between the two of them, Aria and Zephyron now faced five of the beasts.
“We need to run!” Zephyron shouted. “We won’t last if we continue to fight.”
Aria glanced at the central pillar. They had covered half the distance to it since they had first stepped foot in the cavern. Aria pulled the spine from her body and gave a stiff nod. The warm wetness of the blood spread quickly, but the power of the shard dulled the pain. She would pay a price for that later. She took a quick moment to draw deeper from th
e shard, savoring the rush of power flooding into her. With her two swords in hand, she rushed toward the two attackers to her left and slid beneath their claws as they attempted to cleave her. She slashed at each of them behind the knee and let her momentum carry her past them before she spun around and sprinted in Kharra’s direction. Zephyron performed a similar maneuver and ran along beside her. They wove their way in and out of the still inactive shard beasts toward their destination.
Zephyron reached the pillar first. Without stopping he sprinted up the spiral ramp ascending along the pillar’s perimeter. At the top Aria caught sight of both Kharra and her captor, a lean man of above-average height with blond hair, green eyes, and an aquiline nose. Around Kharra swirled a solid white pulsing light. Around the man, however, wove a web of tainted darkness and chaos represented by dark purple and black. Aria wanted nothing more than to launch the man off the platform, but the krumetuses were right behind her. She and Zephyron spun around at the top of the ramp to engage them, forcing the beasts into a bottleneck.
The krumetuses assaulted them relentlessly, adjusting their attacks to the new arrangement. Aria’s vision narrowed as she focused on the enemies in front of her. In her ears, her twin swords began to sing, each harmonizing with the other. In the background, low and steady, the sound of the shard joined in. As she fought the world around her faded away.
When Aria topped the ramp, Kharra gasped as she caught sight of her face. The entire left side of the kruusta’s face had crystallized along with her left arm and the sword extending from it. At the moment she still seemed to be in control. Maybe Lukav’s plan would backfire.
Watching in tense anticipation, Kharra felt useless. Collared, she had no means of contributing. Lukav showed no concern despite the fact that the two assailants were fighting no more than two dozen paces away from him. In fact he appeared to be enjoying the spectacle. The priests on the cavern ledges had moved farther along. They were now standing on suspended walkways spanning between the walls and the central pillar. The priests were clearly controlling the shard beasts, but they seemed limited as to the number they could control at any given time.
The two fighters held their position for a significant amount of time, felling one of the krumetuses. Suddenly, one of the other beasts that had been unable to engage them launched itself over its companions and came crashing down on Aria. The kruusta screamed as the weight of the beast crushed her right, still human arm. With a solid two-handed grip on his blade, Zephyron twisted toward the creature on Aria and swung upward, connecting under the beast’s jaw. It had not anticipated the move and failed to dodge the attack. The monster fell backward, its giant foot grinding Aria’s arm further before toppling down to the three krumetuses behind it.
One of the three remaining krumetuses sidestepped the one that fell toward the ramp and took advantage of the disabled fighter. The monster slashed at Aria’s face. She brought up her fused left-hand sword to keep its claw at bay. Zephyron attempted to fight off the one on Aria, but a second beast, having regained its footing, backhanded him. The hit connected with Zephyron squarely, sending him flying to the center of the platform. The Guardian’s head slammed against the stone pillar. Kharra heard the crack and screamed when he fell limp. She started toward Zephyron but stumbled to the floor as shocks of pain raced down through her neck. She forced herself back to her feet.
Aria found her footing and fought off the beast that had been trying to claw her face. As Kharra watched, she also heard a sound, a deep, resonating sound she felt within her bones. She heard other tones that together sounded like singing. They were sounds no human voice could produce, but they sang pure and strong. Her right arm fine now, Aria brought both swords to bear. The two blades swirled back and forth, a tempest of motion. Aria’s movements sped up. Not just her swords, but everything about her moved faster. She moved side to side quicker than the krumetuses could follow. As the moments passed, she quickly chipped away at each of the three remaining creatures. First in front of them, then behind, one side, and then the other. She seemed to be everywhere at once. Kharra had no idea how a person could move so fast.
The first krumetus exploded in a shower of sparkling shards. Aria thrust both of her swords into its body and pulled the beast apart until it could no longer maintain cohesion. The second krumetus toppled as Aria’s leaping slash removed its head from its shoulders. Aria drove the final one backward with a rapid succession of strikes until it reached the platform’s handrail. With one massive blow from both blades, Aria forced the creature to lose its balance against the railing and fall off the edge. It hit the cavern floor and shattered.
As soon as the last krumetus disappeared, Aria fell to her knees, dropping the krusword in her right hand. The one fused to the left remained. There she sat for several moments, facing the outer edge of the platform.
Kharra moved toward her, half expecting pain from the collar to knock her to the ground again. But the pain did not come.
“Go,” Aria said without turning. “Stay away.” Her voice sounded harsh, raspy.
Kharra ignored her and continued to approach. She placed her hands on Aria’s shoulder, but the kruusta swung her arm backward, flinging Kharra back with such force that it knocked the wind out of her. She landed on her back in the middle of the platform. Aria’s motion had turned her slightly, enough for Kharra to behold her face. Even as she watched, the crystalline tendrils crawled along Aria’s skin. Several of them radiated outward from the kruusta’s right eye. Her right arm was almost completely crystallized as well.
At last Lukav moved toward the kneeling woman. He knelt down beside her and put his hand under her chin. “Don’t bother trying to fight it, my dear. You sealed your own fate by coming here, fighting as I knew you would. Though at first I was upset at you for your interference with my plans, it seems I can forgive you in light of your contribution to my cause. With you leading my charge, no military force in all of Tanoria can stand against me.”
Through clenched teeth, Aria growled, “I’m…going…to kill you.”
Lukav stood and looked down at Aria thoughtfully. “You know, I had almost this exact same conversation with your grandmother over a hundred years ago. That fool half sister of mine had no business sending me away, but she and the others learned what the powers of a half-breed could really do.” Aria’s hand twitched at the mention of his relationship to her. “Oh, yes, I’ve known about you all along, but I’ve had no need for familial attachments. They only held me back.”
Aria’s fingers flexed. Clawing at the floor, she tilted her head back and screamed, a single wailing note that pierced through Kharra’s mental shields and stabbed deep down into her heart, carrying with it a swirl of pain and terror.
“Fight it!” Kharra yelled.
“I…I’m trying…Kharra, I’m trying.”
“You can do it. I know you can!” Pain from the collar dropped Kharra to her knees once again.
Lukav glared down his long nose at her. “Keep silent,” he said.
Aria’s right eye filled with tears as she screamed again. Her face contorted as the crystalline tendrils spread farther.
Aria fought with every ounce of strength she had left to maintain her sanity. Fire seared through her skull as the crystal crawled across the remainder of her skin. She felt Lukav’s taint slithering through the crystal. Suddenly, something in her mind snapped, as if a dam had slammed into place between her conscious thoughts and her motor functions.
“Run, Kharra!” she yelled, or tried to yell. Her mouth refused to obey.
As Kharra watched, the crystal consumed the last bit of Aria’s skin, and the screaming trailed off. Aria stood slowly. A spectrum of colors reflected off the crystalline exterior that had once been skin. She resembled neither a krumetus nor a creeper. As far as Kharra could tell, Aria’s form was unique.
Standing still beneath the illumination of the cavern lights, Aria looked like a perfectly sculpted statue. From either shoulder protruded long, angul
ar crystal shards, resembling the pauldrons of an exotic suit of armor. The line of each arm was muscular but smooth and shiny as if carved by the hands of a master. Each hand held a massive bluish-green, semi-transparent sword with three long, wicked spikes lining each edge. The center of each sword pulsed with a bluish light.
A series of overlapping crystalline plates encased Aria from chest to torso, forming a teardrop shape in the center of her abdomen. In the middle of the teardrop, a blue-green crystal pulsed the same color as her swords. The trousers she had worn were shredded, revealing long legs of pure crystal, sculpted-looking, like her arms. Near her feet were more overlapping plates that gave way to something that resembled the talons of a raptor. They had broken through the new boots she had acquired in Quan’li’ru.
Aria’s face, however, drew Kharra’s attention the most. Though her eyes and nose were the same shape as they had been with flesh, her eyes had become bright green like sunlit emeralds and faceted like exquisite gems of a king’s crown. They seemed to see nothing and everything all at once. Where each of her ears should have been were three slanted shards, giving the appearance of a bird’s wings. Her hair was now translucent, shimmering and sparkling beneath the light.
“There we go,” said Lukav with an appraising eye as he circled about her. “See, it wasn’t that bad. And I must say, I had not expected this. I expected a normal krumetus like the other kruustas became. I thought to have a soldier, and instead I find myself a general. You look just like your grandmother did just before she destroyed Tahrahn Palace.” He glanced over at Kharra. “I am sorry that you stumbled into this. You seem like a fine young lady. However, I need to move forward with my plans, and your blood is required to seal her to me.
“Aria, dispose of our guests.”
When Aria looked at Kharra, her face held no recognition, no emotion. The green eyes sparkled as she spun each sword once in her hands and strode toward Kharra.
